It seemed like a sensible idea at the time to fly halfway around the world to do this tour, having spent the previous week in Vietnam doing Alco’s on pre-Tet specials. I had round two to look forward to after the PTG tour too, and the PTG tour couldn’t have fell any better if I’d Read the Rest…
Doing Vietnam during the annual Tet holiday has been an ambition for years but the logistics around it, and the threat of not being able to get tickets has put me off; until now. The fact that Tet is the only time of year when the Vinh based Indian built D13E get a chance to Read the Rest…
Originally, I planned to head to NE India at the end of this trip but instead, chose to head to Bangladesh for 5 days to cover the Western side of the country before the recently ordered Progress Rail GMs arrive and change the dynamic of Bangladesh’s BG system for good. I didn’t plan anything too Read the Rest…
India is becoming increasingly difficult to plan a trip around if you want to avoid GM’s, and not even the “sacred” trains that are usually pairs of Alco’s, are sacred anymore, as I rather unpleasantly found out! With there being only very limited bits of new track on offer these days, this trip was mainly Read the Rest…
A simple trip from Warsaw, Poland, to Kyiv, Ukraine via Minsk, Belarus and Kamianets Podilskyi, Ukraine. Flights Wizz Air W6-1306 1435 Luton – Warsaw Ryanair FR3678 1205 Kiev Borispol – Stansted Hotels Warsaw – Central Station Apartment – a simple 5-minute walk from Centralna, is accessed through a gate from the street Read the Rest…
Having not been to the US since the Metrolink BNSF Gala in California, I was really looking forward to this trip and had had the leave booked for it since the turn of the year. There’d been a lot of hype about the Illinois Railway Museum’s upcoming gala and the fact that there should be Read the Rest…
After a successful trip to Mariupol in 2018, I’d discovered while researching that trip, that there was a lot more to be done diesel-wise in the area bordering the Donetsk region and when I finally got my arse into gear I found all the Summer holiday trains to Berdiansk in the UZ timetable and a Read the Rest…
The suggestion for a trip such as this was something I thought to be a little bit crazy when it was first banded around about 5 years ago. At which point, I’d not been to Russia or Belarus, or anywhere in Europe east of Poland, let alone considered going to China. Vietnam had been a Read the Rest…
This trip was nothing short of hastily arranged, the moment the first GM M11 was dispatched from India to Sri Lanka; which would surely put pay to some of the trains that were being worked by Alco’s? I’d not been to Sri Lanka since 2009 and had been waiting for the lines to Jaffna & Read the Rest…
Having only been back in the UK since 7th December, I’d already had this trip fully planned and all tickets were booked before I’d set off on the previous trip in early November. With only having a two week stint I made it simple and the long-distance pair moves allowed for three days based at Read the Rest…
After 14 years of travelling around India by train, not only had it come to the point where things were changing faster than we could keep up with current events, but Indian Railways had taken away our comfort zone and the time had finally come where I had to do a trip without the benefit Read the Rest…
Best laid plans! While the 2018 PTG Balkan Circular charter only breezed through Greece, it would still get some Alco’s while in the country; but almost didn’t end up involving Greece at all, thanks to an untimely bridge issue in Macedonia which all but cut Macedonia from its rail connection to any other country. Once Read the Rest…
As soon as the Blonay Chamby Railway’s Mega Bernina Gala was announced, I made sure I had time to do at least one of the weekends in September that it was operating over. As it happened the only weekend I could do was the last weekend of the event. Flights Booked through Easyjet EZS8466 Read the Rest…
Thanks to my wife’s roster clerk being a bit rubbish after she started a new job with what became LNER in June 2018, our summer holiday had to be split into two bits; just because she couldn’t have Saturday 1st September off. The result of that being me using 4 days leave to fit with Read the Rest…
I’d planned this trip to coincide with the planned charter that was expected to be an SBB Re6/6 from Luino to Schaffhausen, which would also have linked in nicely with the BLS Heritage Extrazug that was running Burgdorf – Brig – Burgdorf on the same day. As luck didn’t have it, for the second time Read the Rest…
Having only ventured into Ukraine for the first time two years ago, I was beginning to get the bug for the place. It’s a country which in cranking terms is about as real as it gets these days, and there’s no sign of things changing anytime soon. So, this trip was planned to take in Read the Rest…
Even though the wounds inflicted on the previous trip were still quite fresh, I altered this plan the day I got home from the last one; to attempt to deal with Khajuraho once and for all, at the third attempt. There had been quite a bit involving the MG in my plans but this all Read the Rest…
Having managed to secure one of the last ever Indrail Passes sold, and quite possibly the last ever, I had no choice but to make do with a 60-day Sleeper Class one; and decided to make use of it with a last-minute trip ahead of my long-planned 3-week trip in March. Two things swung it Read the Rest…
As has been the case for the previous two years, we were both off at Christmas again this year and so made plans to head out of the UK for it. With there being a rerun, albeit with a difference, of the MAV Nostalgia Christmas Nohab outing from Kelenfold to Tapolca, we tied our plans in with Read the Rest…
This trip would end up being a trip with a difference, and it would take away some of the luxuries we’d been used to while travelling around India’s rail network for the previous 13 years! SD Enterprises Ltd, the agent in London we’d used from day one for Indrail Passes, had only been able to Read the Rest…